Canine Distemper Vaccine shall be prepared from virus-bearing cell culture fluids or embryonated chicken eggs. Only Master Seed Virus which has been established as pure, safe, and immunogenic shall be used for preparing the production seed virus for vaccine production. All serials of vaccine shall be prepared from the first through the fifth passage from the Master Seed Virus.

(a) Master Seed Virus. The Master Seed Virus shall meet the applicable requirements prescribed in §113.300 and the requirements prescribed in this section.

(1) To detect ferret virulent canine distemper virus, each of five canine distemper susceptible ferrets shall be injected with a sample of the Master Seed Virus equivalent to the amount of virus to be used in one dog dose and observed each day for 21 days. If undesirable reactions are observed during the observation period, the lot of Master Seed is unsatisfactory.

(2) Master Seed Virus propagated in tissues or cells of avian origin shall be tested for pathogens by the chicken embryo test prescribed in §113.37. If found unsatisfactory, the Master Seed Virus shall not be used.

(b) Each lot of Master Seed Virus used for vaccine production shall be tested for immunogenicity. The selected virus dose from the lot of Master Seed Virus shall be established as follows:

(1) Twenty-five canine distemper susceptible dogs shall be used as test animals (20 vaccinates and 5 controls). Blood samples shall be drawn from these animals and individual serum samples tested. The dogs shall be considered susceptible if the results are negative at a 1:2 final serum dilution in a varying serum-constant virus neutralization test using 50 to 300 TCID50 of canine distemper virus.

(2) A geometric mean titer of the dried vaccine produced from the highest passage of the Master Seed Virus shall be established before the immunogenicity test is conducted. The 20 dogs used as vaccinates shall be injected with a predetermined quantity of vaccine virus and the remaining five dogs held as uninjected controls. To confirm the dosage calculations, five replicate virus titrations shall be conducted on a sample of the vaccine virus dilution used.

(3) At least 14 days post-injection, the vaccinates and the controls shall each be challenged intracerebrally with virulent canine distemper virus furnished or approved by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and observed each day for 21 days.

(i) If at least four of the five controls do not die and the survivor, if any, does not show clinical signs of canine distemper the test is a No Test and may be repeated.

(ii) If at least 19 of the 20 vaccinates do not survive without showing clinical signs of canine distemper during the observation period, the Master Seed Virus is unsatisfactory.

(4) An Outline of Production change shall be made before authorization for use of a new lot of Master Seed Virus shall be granted by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

(c) Test requirements for release. Except for §113.300(a)(3)(ii), each serial and subserial shall meet the requirements prescribed in §113.300 and in this paragraph. Final container samples of completed product shall be tested. Any serial or subserial found unsatisfactory by a prescribed test shall not be released.

(1) The test for pathogens prescribed in §113.37 shall be conducted on each serial or one subserial of avian origin vaccine.

(2) Virus titer requirements. Final container samples of completed product shall be tested for virus titer using the titration method used in paragraph (b)(2) of this section. To be eligible for release, each serial and subserial shall have a virus titer sufficiently greater than the titer of vaccine virus used in the immunogenicity test prescribed in paragraph (b) of this section to assure that when tested at any time within the expiration period, each serial and subserial shall have a virus titer of 100.7 greater than that used in such immunogenicity test but not less than 102.5 TCID50 per dose.

[60 FR 14362, Mar. 17, 1995, as amended at 72 FR 72564, Dec. 21, 2007]